On Monday August 22, the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, arrived Poland on a two-day visit. The focus of the visit was on economy cooperation between two countries and discussion of East Europeanforeign policy. President Andrzej Duda described the visit as “extremely important and significant” and reminded the audience that is the first such visit since 2002. However, in 2007 Polish president visited Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev called Poland a “natural partner”, emphasized the importance of bilateral relations and declared that Kazakhstan will abolish visa requirement for Polish citizens as part of the abolition of visas for OECD countries. Moreover, the President of Kazakhstan said that “Poland will be the first UE countries reached by Kazakh exports”.

The Presidents adopted a joint declaration on the economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Poland. Moreover, they signed a numbers of international agreements in such areas as energy, transport, technology and finance. According to the Nazarbayev, Kazach government is interested in the development of many industries, especially related to innovative technologies. Nazarbayev also expressed the hope that the Polish parliament will ratify an agreement on reinforced partnership between Kazakhstan and the EU in near future.

Nazarbayev and Duda also talked about East European foreign policy, including building stability and peace in the East. However, there were no signed joint declaration in this regard. Nazarbayev’s visit in Poland confirms the change in the foreign policy of Kazakhstan and the economic opening towards the EU. The first step in warming relations with the EU was the release of the main Kazakh opposition figure Vladimir Kozlov.

Read more (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland)
Read more (Prezydent.pl)
Read more (The Astana Times)